In days of old, when people of a township were threatened they retreated (as their last best hope) into the Keep – a heavily fortified “core” of the castle that was designed to withstand the most vigorous of attacks

So I had this odd but interesting idea that it should, given the right size of paper, be possible to fold an entire castle from it. After being inspired by Gachepaper and his exploration of Lotka I decided to give it a whirl

After much planning, I devised a method of subdivision and set about using a technique first played with by Yoshihide Momotani in his brick tessellation for dollhouses, I set about building a fine brick field, modelling some windows and a door

The paper does not go around completely – the sheet was not big enough and I could not fold fine enough for the scale to look right so it is more of a “folly”, popular in Victorian gardens to give the illusion of historical ruin among the roses and dahlias but it is nice none the less. The more observant of you will realise there’s a light (over at the Franjenstein’s place…).

very happy with this first attempt – must try it with something like Elephant Hide so it is more structurally sound – it felt like cheating attaching it to a cardboard skeleton but you get that.

I have a full sheet of natural Lotka, and was itching to try and use if for a tessellation because I had read it was good for them.

I decided to not MC it first (not sure if that decision will come back to haunt me) but without squaring it off (no side is even straight), devised a method for division horizontally and vertically

then began tweezering flaps (each overlap is roughly 0.5cm so it is really fiddly

until a nice tessellated field was established on the right side

after photgraphing it and in pencil planning some regular “disturbances”, I began tweaking details.

Cardboard Armature to support the fabric-like facade and it is beginning to look a lot like … something

This was WTF (What’s that Fold?) # 16 – What is it going to be, why fold it now and what I will do with it after is all up for conjecture at this point. Given I am making it up as I go, I have every confidence it will not be thrown away at least.